Izotope Idrum

[EdRyan]

Gotta say, I'm really impressed with this.

It's just a no nonsense,straight looking and easy to use sampler design to work with drum samples.

The likes of Ultrabeat are cool, because they allow you to do so much in one go. But I like my 'boxes'. I want my drum machine to e a drum machine, not a drum machine,filter,noise generator, eq etc.

The built in sounds are ok, but this thing comes into its own when you get some decent samples. I think I'm gonna be using this one quiet a lot.

Purchasing now. It's a steal for $60.00 (around £45)

[sureno]

reminds me of fruity loops back in the day

[EdRyan]

Fair comparison. Although it doesn't seem to trip itself up like Fruityloops did. I remember that thing often went haywire for seemingly no reason.

Actually I'm demoing some of their other apps now...and my god they are nice. Ozone esp. Radius looks like it would be good, but the audio output of the demo mode is useless for evaluation purposes. Cuts out too often. But you know its worth it, if Digidesign buy a license and rebrand it...

[sureno]

yeah to be fair i found Izotope to be apps of the highest quality, definitely cant knock them other than they are a b!tch on the cpu at times

[EdRyan]

I'm jsut reading thier guide on Optimizing Ozone for your current project setups.

Ouch. Best thing of all, it appears to only have made about %3 diff to the load it pushes onto the cpu..

[sureno]

Originally Posted by EdRyan

I'm jsut reading thier guide on Optimizing Ozone for your current project setups.

Ouch. Best thing of all, it appears to only have made about %3 diff to the load it pushes onto the cpu..

when i demoed ozone in logic 8.0.1 it smashed my 8 core to pieces

[EdRyan]

It's not just Ozone. From what I gather, it gets on top the more you throw at it. WHen your computer is only dealing wit ha few tracks and processes its not bad at all, if you have a big project...I completely see why it starts screwing things up. It's a hefty piece of software engineering. 64bit analogue emulation is no mean feat (esp if they are using a floating number system). Even things like UAD2 cards doesn't go past 32..

[sureno]

Sorry Ed floating numbers go straight over my head, i havent been in the game long enough to get round to these but i will take your word for it

[EdRyan]

ok. Most computer programs run on 32 bit 'fixed' number systems. Which basically means that all of the values they can represent are equally spaced. This results in linear response. The decimal point remains constant.

Floating point numbers are generally better at recreating analogue traits because they aren't restricted to linear response. This is achieved by moving the decimal place (won't explain the scheme to you, its complicated) to maintain optimal resolution.

For example, a 24bit fixed point system has a theoretical range of 144dB. A 24bit floating number system has a theoritcal range of around 1550dB.

You'd never want that sort of range for recording, but the flexibility is good for analogue modeling.

If memory serves me rightly though, floating point numbers have a massive impact on cpu's because of a problem with denormal numbers. It doesn't matter how many cores you have, because they'd eventually suffer from the same issue. I suspect that's why your 8 core got upset.

[Meander]

Might be kicking myself but I've never even looked at this due to being a battery user and not wanting to fall in the trap of buying loads of software that does the same job.

This seems to be able to sequence internally though so I have a few questions. Can this operate as a plug-in and standalone? Does it give you the option to save all tracks as separate wav files? If it does those things then I might have to buy this as its not too much dosh.TIA

[sureno]

Ed i feel like "Pinky" and your "the brain"

[EdRyan]

Originally Posted by Meander

Might be kicking myself but I've never even looked at this due to being a battery user and not wanting to fall in the trap of buying loads of software that does the same job.

This seems to be able to sequence internally though so I have a few questions. Can this operate as a plug-in and standalone? Does it give you the option to save all tracks as separate wav files? If it does those things then I might have to buy this as its not too much dosh.TIA

To answer your questions.

1) Yes, it can run standalone. There is also a version for the Iphone and Ipod touch, and it's possible to swap data between them. Meaning you can program beats for fun on your lunch, and then use them for real when you get home.

2) I'm still new to it, but to bounce each element on it's own, I think you'd have to solo them and then use bounce pattern. I get what you're after, and doing it one by one is a gripe. But a tiny one. I don't think it'd take that long..

Here's a screenshot for you. The red version is standalone, the right version is hosted within Logic. With the menu showing for you to have a butchers.

[Meander]

Thanks Ed, cheers for the jpeg too. I know it's a minor thing and probably won't stop me buying this but it is all down to workflow at the end of the day and it is bloody annoying bouncing tracks one by one when it would take probably half a line of code to implement it!

WDIT: thannks for the better view of the menu. I like you like to keep things simple at first with my drums and this appears to be exactly what I need. The idea is get a rhythm going and being able to edit it easily then bounce and treat the elements individually in host. Nice one

[EdRyan]

Izotopes rep is impeccable. It probably can be done, I've jsut not used to all the options. It might be under the pattern options.

And besides, if you have an Itouch... you can make up for lsot time by programming at work or on the train etc.

[EdRyan]

There's also some other options under the i button.

Its also a multi output capable device. So you could setup each part to a different output, and do it that way.

And you can repitch the sounds etc, and change their bit resolution. It's a well done app imo !